FEATURED ARTIST
(Archived version from January, 1999 - click here for current)

Shireen Holman

From Shireen Modak Holman - Left: Memories of my Father, Artist's Book, 15" x 11", 1998.  Right: Stream of Life, Artist's Book, 13" X 14 1/2", 1995. 

How did I start creating artist's books, and why did I choose this format to present my ideas?

I've been a printmaker for about 20 years. A few years ago I saw an exhibit of artists' books and realized that here was the perfect way to incorporate time and space into my work. I had been using doors, windows and stairs as a way of showing movement and depth in space and time. But a book has actual three dimensionality. By putting images on different pages, I require the viewer to move backward and forward in the artwork. In order to understand the theme of the whole work, the viewer has to put together the separate parts, much as a listener has to do to appreciate a whole piece of music.

How do I find time to work and raise a family? Where do my themes come from? These two questions are related for me. Working and raising a family at the same time has been difficult. My family's needs always come first, and my work is so often put on hold. One of the ways I have coped with this is by having my family be the subject of my work. I've always used parts of my life in my work, so when my kids became the center of life, it made sense for them to become part of my work. Before I had children, I lived in the Boston area and commuted to work every day on the T. At first, I hated the noise and the stink of urine in the old subway stations, which were used as shelters by the homeless in winter. There were frequent long, unexplained, claustrophobic delays. But then I decided that instead of being miserable, I could use this time underground in my work. I began to take extra trips for photographing and drawing, and made a series of monotypes and etchings which I call my subway prints.

When my daughters were young, I made a series of monotypes depicting the inner perspective of a small child as she encounters the fear, mystery and wonder of the growing world within and outside herself. I used monsters and mysterious creatures to represent the different levels of consciousness and awareness that a person experiences at different times of life. One of the problems I have found with using the lives of my children as themes in my work is that the artwork with children in it seems to be taken less seriously than work with any other subject matter. One woman who came to my studio a few years ago said, after looking at some prints I was working on, "Do you only make pictures of children?" She seemed to imply that a serious artist would find something better to do!

My recent complete artist's book Memories of My Father, is a book of visual memories of my father who died a few years ago. It combines memories of our lives in India, where I grew up, and in the United States. This book is currently in the Book as Art X exhibit at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and will be there through Jan. 16, 1999.